Maria Sember

After our long, and exhausting flight to England we set our bags down and started wandering around the city. All we had was a map in our hands to direct us. Looking at the places we could go we decided to try and find the Sydney Gardens. With one destination in mind it shouldn't take that long....well in our case it took 7 hours to find! Despite the long trek we found some beautiful buildings, shops, museums and parks. Not to mention we also got to see a cricket game- we didn't understand how the game was played but it was interesting to watch. At the end of the day, well London time that is, we were very tired! Even though we had been up for more than 30 hours at this point we didn't regret taking that day to explore the city by ourselves. Within our group of 7 we learned a lot about the city and each other- no one can complain about that. As we headed back to the dormitories we were ready to sleep- everyone else seemed to have the same idea because most of us were asleep by 9pm. I am excited to see what else is in store for us in the coming days!

Paul Gaffney

After the minor chaos of two flights and two train trips my jet lag caught up to me with a vengeance once we checked into the YMCA at Bath. A short naps forestalled the worst, then our group splintered and scattered to explore central Bath, a very compact, busy maze of streets. Lisa Zamecnik and I speculated about whether we could see Prior Park, a Palladian mansion on a hill overlooking Bath. When the friendly man at reception suggested to Lisa that we could likely see Prior Park from a road up the hill called Camden Circle, seven of us walked the fifteen minutes up the steep Georgian slope through Bath’s parks and streets and it was well worth the effort. Even more memorable was our visit, on the way back down, of a little antique shop. An self-proclaimed “eighty-four-year-old Prussian” woman gave us an engaging, good-humoredly gruff tour of some of their treasures, including waistcoats, dresses, suits, and bonnets from Jane Austen’s time. She lectured us about handicraft and prodded us to move around in the tight space; “now you can say you’ve been poked by a Prussian,” she said. She insisted that Soya, Nicholas, and I each try on a Napoleon III army officer’s hat. She told us about her sister who lives in Carmel, California and her son who lives in New Zealand. Lovely.

Bryn Wolanski

Today was so interesting! For the first time, I left the country and went somewhere new and exciting! The United Kingdom has been really surprising... there are some things that remind me of home (lots of pastures, etc.) but the buildings here are BEAUTIFUL. There's so much to see and I was overwhelmed by just how magnificent it all seems. I was in awe; we definitely don't have things like that in Cleveland! :) The shops here have been very interesting, too. There are lots of boutiques around and walking on the roads is really interesting... it's hard to get used to traffic driving on the opposite sides of the street! I, like everyone else, am extremely exhausted. I think we're all looking forward to a good night's sleep and a lot of fun new things in the future!

-Bryn